The Crusty Crab and Sap Pedro Fish Market will remain open and moved into a new space at the San Pedro Public Market. The businesses are surrounded by demolition sites on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

It’s been a long goodbye by anyone’s standards. But by the end of the year, what once was San Pedro’s famed Ports O’ Call Village will be gone. The only businesses remaining will be the San Pedro Fish Market and Crusty Crab that will stay open and transitioned into a new, $150 million development.

So what now?

By late January, the Port of Los Angeles expects to put out a bid for the waterfront promenade that will run from the Los Angeles Maritime Museum to an area in the vicinity of the former Asian Village building along the linear property.

A second section of promenade will pick up on the other side of heading south, with the two being joined once a new building is completed for the Fish Market where Ports O’ Call Restaurant once stood. The two sections will be connected later after building construction begins.

A town square will be constructed and opened in 2021 next to the Maritime Museum.

With demolition expected to be complete by the end of the year, the Port of Los Angeles will begin constructing sections of the half-mile-long waterfront promenade where Ports O’ Call Village once stood. The first building to go up in the new San Pedro Public Market will be where the Ports O’ Call Restaurant stood, just south of the center of the development. (Courtesy Port of Los Angeles)

Site preparation

The work is all part of the site preparation by the port that is required for the property to be turned over to the developer, the San Pedro Waterfront Alliance.

The transfer is expected to happen in late 2019 with construction on the new San Pedro Public Market beginning in early 2020. Some work will continue on the promenade, expected to be finished in 2021, as the San Pedro Waterfront Alliance constructs the first building for the San Pedro Fish Market.

A San Pedro Public Market opening is still expected in late 2020 or early 2021, according to a spokeswoman for the developer.

The process so far has not been an easy one, however, with hard feelings marring the community’s once-enthusiastic view of a new project to come. The unease began surfacing when the village’s small shops and restaurants were evicted by the landlord, the Port of Los Angeles, to make way for a new commercial waterfront attraction. Many believed construction would be done around the old shops, causing little disruption.

The restaurant with a spectacular view of the Main Channel hosted many of the towns banquets, wedding receptions and other gatherings throughout its many years, its holiday brunches and happy hours consistently popular.

Plans moving forward, say port, developer

According to Kathleen Maguire Miller of the Ratkovich Co., the lead developer on the new waterfront project, the first structure that will be built in the San Pedro Public Market will be on that former restaurant parcel, requiring that space to be cleared up front.

Responding to what is now widespread speculation in the community that the development is in trouble, Miller said “nothing could be further from the truth.”

“(The developers have) been working on bringing in the main tenants and we’re close to making an announcement,” she said. More public information and progress reports will be forthcoming early in 2019, she said.

The project’s website also is being updated, she said, and port officials confirm that the project is moving forward as planned.

A written statement issued by the developers on Monday, Nov. 19, stated “It is our intent to return this site to its former prominence and ensure that the San Pedro Public Market becomes an important destination for the people of San Pedro, Los Angeles and beyond.”

As much of the entire site needed to be cleared by the port, she said, before construction can begin. The San Pedro Fish Market, which will remain open through construction, will be moved into the first building that will be built where Ports O’ Call Restaurant stood, according the plans.

The developers’ statement said the San Pedro Public Market is intended to be “nothing less than a world-class project that will anchor the transformational developments underway in San Pedro, from AltaSea to SpaceX.”

Developers promise communication

As many of Ports O’ Call Village shop owners and, especially, Ports O’ Call Restaurant were evicted amid legal battles, the new development’s public image took a beating, however.

A mantra that’s heard often among residents now is that the developers have “no money and no tenants.”

Critics say it either won’t get built or, if it does, it will be a failure.

That’s a far cry from the reception an early rollout of the San Pedro Public Market received two and a half years ago. A large audience at the Warner Grand Theatre erupted in spontaneous applause when the initial conceptual designs were unveiled at that meeting.

Open-air views with industrial-style buildings are part of the San Pedro Public Market design. (Image from Rapt Studio)

Those softer designs later were changed to reflect a starker, industrial look that was ot as popular with many in the community but one that developers said blended better with the working, industrial Port of Los Angeles.

Miller said developers have been “hard at work” putting together more refined design and business plans as the construction schedule nears.

“I would expect in the new year (the community) is going to hear new things,” she said of the project plans.

“We’re going to start communicating” via newsletters and other outreach efforts, she said.

Plans for the new development as laid out by the developer in April call for:

Container kitchens using reconfigured shipping containers

An amphitheater at the southern end of the footprint with program bookings to be managed by Nederlander Concerts

A main market building with food and retail vendors

An emphasis on water views with open space, outdoor seating and play areas and buildings constructed with glass to focus on Main Channel open views

A half-mile continuous promenade along the water

Nautical-themed play areas for children, shaded seating and view platforms overlooking the port

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

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